After spending approximately RMB400,000 (USD60,000) on questionable medications and health-related equipment over the last 19 years, 89-year old Huang Qin* recently published a book about her experiences – many of which serve as warnings to other senior citizens living in China.
In her book, Live for a Hundred Years with a Healthy Mind (心理健康活百岁), Huang, a retired psychology professor who resides in Guangzhou, details the shady dealings of the country’s healthcare product industry. She hopes it will serve as a useful resource for the elderly, and help them avoid purchasing fraudulent goods.
Huang first grew concerned about her health when diagnosed with diabetes in 1998 – the same year her granddaughter died of kidney failure. After that, Huang says her obsession with healthcare products dominated her life.
In 2000, when she was 70, Huang spent RMB20,000 for a health-related ‘study class.’ She was allegedly taken to a villa where she lived for a month, snacking on only vegetables and drinking veggie juices.
“They said it was detoxing, and one month later my health index did go back to normal,” Huang told reporters from The Paper.
After that experience, her curiosity about health products turned into a dependence. She filled a notebook with phone numbers of healthcare product representatives, whom she refers to as “little devils” due to their generally young ages.
Huang was repeatedly moved by the sales reps, and recounted a time when they visited her in the hospital, bearing fruits and washing her clothes.
But in 2014, the health-conscious Huang began to question the honesty of the young salespeople after she was sold a ‘spectrum analyzer’ for RMB60,000. Her daughter later discovered the equipment is normally listed at RMB20,000.
Before this incident, Huang was tricked into buying an energy supplement called Enada for RMB4,000 – well above the normal retail price of USD20 in the United States.
Huang said that at one lecture she attended, the manager of a healthcare company told a story of how she had lost her father at a young age, before kneeling down and telling the audience of senior citizens they were her ‘fathers and mothers.’ The attendees all cried, according to Huang, and the manager succeeded in selling over 100 products – each valued at RMB5,000 – after the presentation.
Exaggerated sales pitches are one of the industry’s favorite tactics, Huang explained to The Paper, and usually occur during lectures or organized healthcare trips.
“But it’s easy to understand,” Huang says. “Old people suffer from long-term illness, yearn for good health and fear death. Subjectively, they want to believe that what these salespersons say is true.”
This year, Huang saw news that a senior citizen in Jiangsu province committed suicide after being cheated out of all his savings to buy healthcare products. It tugged at her heartstrings.
“They are too greedy. Some sell bogus products, others make exorbitant profits. Now that I’ve seen in the news that more and more old people have died because they were cheated by healthcare product companies, I think I should stand out and say something.”
Huang is currently working on a second book, The Golden Key to Health (健康的金钥匙), centered around similar topics, which is scheduled to be released soon.
*Huang Qin is a pseudonym.
[Images via The Paper]
0 User Comments